 During the Middle Ages and right up until about 1800 it was a major location for lead mining and the lead obtained in the many Brassington and Carsington mines was usually smelted in Wirksworth.The Channel 4 archaeology series "Time Team" once visited Carsington to investigate the archaeology and ancient remains in the pastures, where they visited a cave, discovered by the Pegasus Caving Club, full of ancient human bones.British aurochs specimen CPC98 was retrieved in 1998 from Carsington Pasture Cave, possess P mtDNA haplogroup sequences and radiocarbon dated to 6,738 ± 68 calibrated years BP.